'Accident prone' man told to 'cop on' by judge after crashing car in Limerick city

A YOUNG man who crashed his partner's car into a wall has been fined in Limerick City District Court.

Devlyn Young, 29, with a home address at Danesfort Drive, Loughrea, county Galway, took his partner’s car without her permission on December 21, 2025.

Inspector Liam Wallace, giving garda evidence, said that the man crashed the car into a wall at Danesfort, Corbally, Limerick, and that the impact of the collision caused the car’s air bags to be deployed.

Limerick District Court heard that Mr Young did not possess a driver’s licence at the time of the incident, and that he was not insured to drive the car.

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The man’s solicitor detailed that Mr Young went for a short drive “to get something to eat”, and that the collision occurred on “a bad bend”.

The man lived in Corbally at the time.

The solicitor described the incident as a “most unusual case”.

The court heard in mitigation that Mr Young previously trained and worked as a chef -and has been employed as a shop worker. The man also worked in construction, but broke his back.

Judge Patricia Harney commented “he seems to be accident prone”, and added that “he’d want to really cop himself on”.

Inspector Wallace informed the court that Mr Young has no previous convictions. 

The judge convicted and fined the man €650 for driving without a licence and no insurance, and gave him three months to pay the penalty.

Judge Harney commented that the man taking his partner’s car was “not a regular unauthorised taking”, and asked for the state's attitude to the offence.

The judge then proceeded to take the unauthorised taking of the vehicle into consideration when imposing the penalty.

-Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme